Only if you're unconscious, and in that case you should be in a hospital anyway.
If you're conscious you'll just pull the mask off if you start feeling like you are not getting the right air. These machines, and masks, have all kinds of safety features and safety valves on them.
I have a CPAP, oxygen concentrator and assorted hoses and masks, and I've messed around with them these days while watching ventilator 101 videos on YT. If you're a technical person, the basics are not that hard to grasp.
CPAP machines are usually used when you're asleep, right? Since sleep apnea can sometimes be fatal, it seems like screwing up your CPAP machine could conceivably lead to your death.
For most, yes, but there are people who use them while awake... for instance, people who suffer from conditions like ALS or COPD.
Even as someone with just vanilla sleep apnea I'll occasionally strap mine on for a while when suffering from a head cold...certainly helps open things up.
Yeah, you're basically using Positive End-Expiratory Pressure(PEEP) to keep the alveoli from sticking together or developing stiffness. The problem it solves is under normal conditions your lung compliance goes down and with it your Tidal Volume. My understanding is that PEEP works for COPD patients by maintaining enough alveolar pressure that at the next inspiration all of the alveoli in the lung are recruited to store gas instead of only some which both increases surface area and also volume of gas. Both of these factors improve blood oxygenation. I think it has the same effect with pneumonia too for the same reasons.
I am not an RT but I worked for a ventilator company for like 4 years.
If you're conscious you'll just pull the mask off if you start feeling like you are not getting the right air. These machines, and masks, have all kinds of safety features and safety valves on them.
I have a CPAP, oxygen concentrator and assorted hoses and masks, and I've messed around with them these days while watching ventilator 101 videos on YT. If you're a technical person, the basics are not that hard to grasp.